Densho Digital Archive
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Roy H. Matsumoto Interview
Narrator: Roy H. Matsumoto
Interviewers: Alice Ito (primary), Tom Ikeda (secondary)
Location: Seattle, Washington
Date: December 17 & 18, 2003
Densho ID: denshovh-mroy-01-0071

<Begin Segment 71>

TI: Okay, so Roy, we're gonna get going again. So we're at Nhpum Ga, your unit has now been surrounded for what, nine, ten days, we talked just earlier about sort of the circumstances. I'm curious, how did the men feel at this point? What were they thinking and saying after being surrounded for so long?

RM: Well, they think well, we been talkin' and some people askin', "How long this gonna be, last?" And what gonna happen? And when gonna the 3rd Battalion come rescue us, and those were things, then some pray, and I knew that, realize that no atheist in the combat, 'cause everybody prayed, see. And I prayed "ABC," that is Allah, Buddha and Christ, I prayed everything, see they hope that survive. And lotta Catholic in there, they use the hand motions and crying. And some people don't say anything and some go, well, crazy 'cause they're so scared and anxiety and everything else.

TI: 'Cause there was a strong sense that, that perhaps you would not survive?

RM: Well, everybody thought we'd be perished. And what happened was Lieutenant McLogan had a rifle platoon. He had fifty men there and he stated that forty percent casualty, it's in the book, too. But actually, not the forty percent of six, seven hundred men, forty percent of fifty men, his, that's statement. That's misunderstood that, people think we had forty percent casualty out of there, no, forty percent his. He had twenty-seven men left out of fifty men, that's about forty percent casualty. That's what he meant. So he was worried about he gonna, so something goin' on there, he called up Colonel McGee, this the commanding officer, so he asked 'em, "What's goin' on here?" Gonna find out. Then Colonel says, "I'll send Matsumoto." "Well he's only one." The other one is sick in the foxhole, so Bob Honda, but me, I was going there. Then went there and I couldn't make out what's goin' on.

TI: When you say "went there," so you, you were asked to sort of crawl and go to the Japanese sort of line to see if you could find out what was gonna happen?

RM: Yeah, well, right there, I mean, report, too, the people making noise, Japanese soldiers, so Lieutenant McLogan, he told 'em what's goin' on. But couldn't make out what, so that's when Colonel said, "Send Matsumoto," that's why I went there. And I couldn't make out either because too many people talkin' and yelling and making, harassing us, you know. But they wanna let us know that they were there. Well, of course, we know, we been there almost ten days there. So they just harassing but couldn't make out what they're doin'. So I went down there and I didn't know what they're talking, just makin' noise and yelling and everything else to harass. So I decided to go --

TI: Just, just to clarify, so, so I think what was happening was at night they would make lots of noise to try to keep the Americans up.

RM: Yeah, that's right, yeah.

TI: I mean, so they wouldn't sleep so they would get, again, it's sort of like a siege mentality. They were trying to make you tired, more tired.

RM: Right, right mentally, physically.

TI: So at night, oftentimes they would make a lot of noise, but with all this commotion, Colonel McGee wanted to send you down there to see what was happening so that, yeah, okay, so let's go on.

RM: Exactly, well, of course he's colonel at the CP that CP means Command Post, that's what he was and so I was at his part, and then told me to go McLogan's part. But that part is the easiest way to come up, and other part was very steep. So that's why his places were being attacked and harassed, that's why they tried to break through there. So that's why he had the forty percent causality, his part, not the forty percent of whole out-and-out Marauders. Because other part that they been there because foxhole, but they don't come up. Of course, they throw hand grenade and they throw mortar and things like that, then artillery from the distance, but we just starving, more or less, and a few casualty because the tree burst or something like that, even though we're in the foxhole, the shrapnel might hurt the people. But the one we lost was, well, not exactly all of 'em, twenty-, what the people get killed, no, just wounded, and so, forty percent, he lost few men, but forty percent casualty, the book says, but not the unit, but at his unit platoon, forty percent. That's what he meant because I was there and went down there, he lost almost half the men there. But forty... so that's why he was, get anxious and worried, commanding officer that's why I was sent there. But I couldn't make out. So I decided to go down there find out exactly what's, sneak in the... but I been doin' it previously but nothing important information come through, they talkin' about, "What you gonna do after you go back," and talkin' about wife, how they're doing and things like that. We do the same things, foxhole, "What do you do after you go back to States?" Says, gonna raise some kind of chicken or somethin' like that, you know, or, gonna be a truck driver, or different things talk about, Japanese the same way. Worry about, old man is fighting and who gonna take care of the farm and the yard or the kids, talkin' about the wife and all kinds of things I been listen. But then, all of a sudden, this order, this according to book, not that way exactly, but they give, officer come down there and then give 'em order, you know, I mean, briefing in other words. See, they're gonna have an early morning, it's a dawn attack. and right there where we doin' it so we know exactly where it comin', so right there's the spot where they're gonna go through there, easy to come up. They don't climb up the steep thing like that, you know, not like D-Day, climbing...

<End Segment 71> - Copyright © 2003 Densho. All Rights Reserved.